Caudillismo along the Nile

The “coup-volution” of 2011 removed President Mubarak but not his authoritarian regime, which is now guided by his successor, President Abd al Fattah al-Sisi. Both autocrats, there are nevertheless important differences between these two presidents and their respective regimes. Sisi’s tougher authoritarianism is analogous to the Latin American prototype of “delegative democracy”, a stalled phase of democratic institution-building in which voters delegate their authority to the president, who rules unconstrained by a balance of institutional powers. The primary feature of what in the Egyptian case might better be termed “delegative authoritarianism” is the decision-making autonomy of the president, who perceives himself as the “embodiment of the nation and the main custodian and definer of its interests”. This results in erratic, inconsistent and ineffective policymaking, which isolates the president yet more from institutions and political forces, while causing the entire polity to be suffused with a deep cynicism. Although the most probable scenario is that Sisi will continue for the foreseeable future as Egypt’s delegative dictator, as a one-man band his regime is inherently unstable and prone to coups, coup-volutions and outright revolutions.     

Awareness of Sexual Violence Services Among LGBQ-Identified College Students

ABSTRACT

The sexual victimization of sexual minorities enrolled in college is not a topic that has been well researched. The present study examines the awareness that college minority students have of services they can access in the event they experience sexual violence. The results indicate that many students are unaware of specific services that they can access if they are sexually victimized. Disclosing an incident of sexual violence, or being the recipient of a disclosure of sexual violence, is related to knowledge of aftercare services. Non-White students demonstrate less awareness of services than White students, indicating that these students may not receive aftercare in the event of sexual victimization because they do not have the knowledge of which services are available. Several policy recommendations and directions for future research stem from these findings.     

规范说之本质缺陷及其克服——以侵权责任法第79条为线索

通过解读侵权责任法第79条,不难发现受害人需要就加害人"违反管理规定,未对动物采取安全措施"这一要件承担证明责任。这种不合理分配证明责任的原因,在于解释者自觉或者不自觉地采用"规范说"理论。该理论在解释方法上以文义解释为主(偶尔采体系解释)。这一方法论上的局限引发了其他诸多问题,当被视为该理论的本质缺陷。当该理论被用于未考虑证明责任问题的实体法规范时,必然导致不合理的证明责任分配。对此的解决之道是,克服方法论上的局限,引入以规范目的为导向的体系解释方法,重新解读法条之间的意义关联,以确定法规范应然的"请求原因-抗辩-再抗辩"要件。这不仅有利于恰当解决证明责任问题,而且有助于证明责任理论的发展以及法解释学的进步。     

海岛主权争端适用有效控制规则的国内法逻辑

晚近国际法院的实践催生了海岛主权争端中适用有效控制规则的日渐成熟和完善,然而,海岛主权争端的复杂性,导致了适用有效控制规则中所考量的各种因素或者证据的权重和分量的不同。在理解国际法的财产权逻辑日渐成熟和被接受的情境下,理解海岛主权争端适用有效控制规则的国内法逻辑,即从国际法体系中的"国内法"因素、国际法体系中作为"事实"的国内法以及国际法院的司法中证据规则三个角度来诠释适用有效控制规则的国内法逻辑进路,将为理性理解有效控制规则提供另一种绵长的动力。主要海洋国家的海岛立法表达模式表明,有效控制规制的适用不仅受到不同海岛立法的表达模式的影响和制约,而且理解适用有效控制规则的国内法逻辑的务实措施是强化国内立法,且必须明确国内法表达的类型、特点与机制。中国同周边国家的海岛主权争端为深入和系统地审视有效控制规则提供了实践经验和依据,更为海岛主权争端适用有效控制规则提供了理论修订机会。就中国而言,在理解海岛主权争端适用有效控制规则的国内法表达上,一方面要展开海岛立法的顶层设计,另一方面要有选择地强化特定海岛的专门立法。     

Evaluative approach to semen transfer in a case of alleged sexual assault: A case study

This paper demonstrates a logical framework for evaluating forensic evidence, first described by Cook et al. [1,2], using a casework example of an alleged sexual assault involving semen transfer. Here we show in real time how the case strategy can change with additional information and how to use available experience and published data to interpret the findings obtained, given the background information provided. The findings of the case are interpreted using the Bayesian approach and are reported by giving the strength of support of scientific findings for one proposition rather than a competing proposition, as per the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENSFI) guideline for evaluative reporting. We believe that using this paper as a template will aid other Forensic Science Practitioners (FSP) to add value and weight to their work by assisting them in evaluating and interpreting their own findings.     

谈全国妇联“反家庭暴力法”建议稿的修改

我国反家庭暴力法制定在即,各部门、各学者纷纷发表立法意见。通过对全国妇联"反家庭暴力法"建议稿草拟的法律条文加以评析,提出对于总则部分反家庭暴力概念以及主体责任两个方面的修改意见。     

Hospital Wet Mount Examination for the Presence of Sperm in Sexual Assault Cases is of Questionable Value

Many protocols for the examination of sexual assault victims include the preparation of vaginal wet mount slides to determine whether sperm are present and if so, whether the sperm are motile. We have reviewed findings in 501 case reports to compare the efficiency of sperm detection on wet mounts to subsequent crime laboratory results of sperm searches on vaginal swabs. Sperm were detected on wet mounts in only 41% of cases in which sperm were detected in the crime laboratory. Motile sperm were observed in only 12% of cases reporting a 0–9 h postcoital interval; in three cases, motile sperm were seen at 15 h and beyond, indicating that motile sperm are not reliable evidence of a short postcoital interval. These findings demonstrate that wet mount examinations are of little value in guiding subsequent analyses in the crime laboratory or in corroborating other investigative aspects of the case.     

On the Razor's edge: The liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam

Throughout the summer of 2000 United Nations officials, both military and civilian, toiled long and hard to establish "The Blue Line" between Israel and Lebanon. The author, a former UN Military Observer who was part of that process, casts a critical eye over the manner in which the "withdrawal line" was delineated and examines its potential to endure. He concludes by arguing that regional pressures may well conspire against the long term survivability of the Blue Line project and suggests that the time is ripe for the UN to undertake a re-evaluation of its operations in the region.‐     

Post-Cold War Vietnam: stay low,learn, adapt and try to have fun – but what about the party?†

The paper compares political ideas and acts in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev and in Communist Vietnam. It argues that the Gorbachev group, committed to progressive change, concluded that power granted to them by their position in the Soviet system needed to be eliminated, creating a ‘boot strap’ problem. To secure progressive change they had first to destroy their own power base. By contrast, the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) attempted, in the two decades after the emergence of a market economy in 1989–1991, to rule an increasingly open society through Soviet political institutions. By the late ‘noughties’ Vietnam faced a crisis of domestic sovereignty, with politics largely a matter of spoils, with policy largely irrelevant and unimplementable, and usually blocked by powerful interests. The paper argues that Hinsley's notion of the sovereignty issue makes this situation far easier to analyse. It argues that the Gorbachev group's analysis would have led to them predicting that the VCP's attempt to use Soviet institutions to rule over a globalising and increasingly open society with a market economy would lead to a crisis of political authority, and that they would have been correct. This leads to the counter-intuitive position that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a success ? in that it managed to solve a serious political problem, i.e. how to create the preconditions for a political system suited to a market economy in a relatively open society – and the VCP a failure.